9/11 Terrorism Research Paper

On September 11, 2001, a terrorist attack by Al-Qaeda, a group of Islamic extremists, occurred. Four passenger airplanes were hijacked and used as guided missiles. Two airplanes struck the Twin Towers in New York while one struck the Pentagon in Virginia. The other crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. This attack forever changed the nation. This event occurred before I was born, but my father told me what happened from his perspective.

It was my dad’s birthday and he was coming back from a night shift to have breakfast with some friends. My dad had no idea about the attack until he got home and my mom, who was at work, called him. She told him to turn on the TV, and when he did, he saw the second plane crash. “I remember seeing people hanging from windows and so much smoke. Then, the buildings collapsed and everyone was running.”

First, the nation recognized how anyone could be a terrorist. Most people in the country imagine a terrorist as someone outside the of the U.S., but this doesn’t mean that anyone who comes here is one. For a long time and still today, people see Muslims as terrorists especially after 9/11. It’s hard to determine what drives a person to commit an act of terrorism, but becoming one can either be by choice or by force. For example, Osama Bin Laden chose to be a terrorist because he was angry at two things: the corruption he saw in Saudi Arabia’s government and the western influence on Middle Eastern life. He organized the terrorist group Al-Qaeda which had a hand in this event. On the internet or the news, there are multiple stories of people taken hostage and forced to work for terrorist groups or engage in these sickening acts. Someone who uses violence and threats to intimidate or coerce others for a political purpose is the definition of a terrorist. It can be inferred with this definition that anyone is capable of being a